University of Windsor business professor Alfie Morgan could hardly be labeled a disciple of the left-leaning Kathleen Wynne regime but he believes the premier is on the side of the angels in fast-tracking a $15 minimum wage.

I happen to think it’s a nutty move, way too much, way too soon, but it’s fascinating to hear Morgan, a fiscal conservative with a social conscience, passionately defend Wynne’s decision to jack up the minimum wage by almost 32 per cent over a mere 19 months.

Morgan, who has coached numerous area businesses over the years, including many mom-and-pop operations, argues that this is the right thing to do because the status quo, currently $11.40 an hour, sentences hundreds of thousands of Ontario residents to a life of poverty.

“As human beings do we want people starving? What is left after taxes when you make $11 or $12 an hour? How do you survive on that?” He said the alternative, a wage race to the bottom, would bring Third World misery. “Do we want to be a Bangladesh? Do we want to sink to the lowest common denominator?”

Morgan conceded the rapid hike will impose hardships on many small businesses, including some in Windsor where the owners themselves, often immigrants working brutally long hours, make less than the minimum wage.

In one case he dealt with, the owner made $5 an hour and had to be subsidized by her husband’s wages.

“This is going to be really serious for a lot of small business people. It will definitely impact those owners who don’t make $11 an hour,” said Morgan.

But he believes the overall impact on the Ontario economy won’t be severe because the increase in labour costs will be more than offset by an increase in demand from people with additional buying power.

He predicts companies will also benefit from improved employee loyalty and happiness, which will translate into happier customers.

Morgan is hoping employers, instead of simply slashing payroll, will become more productive. “Don’t save on people. Save on waste and inefficiencies.”

He still sees area restaurant owners getting their food supplies from supermarkets when they should be forming buyers’ groups to purchase wholesale.

He has no sympathy for the big fast-food chains like McDonald’s that will simply pass on higher labour costs to their customers. You’ll just pay more for those burgers and fries.

It strikes me as social engineering madness to force an Ontario employer to pay a school kid with zero skills $15 an hour to flip pancakes while some southern states, which have been kicking our competitive butt, pay rookie police officers the same kind of money (admittedly in U.S. funds) to put their lives on the line.

But Morgan said it’s not just about teens making a few bucks while gaining work experience. For many in this province, minimum wage will be a lifelong reality. “Some members of our society are simply stuck at that level. It’s a career for a lot of people.”

I have enormous respect for Dr. Morgan. He’s one of this community’s true champions and I truly hope he’s right on this issue.

But I can’t help but wonder whether this workers’ paradise our social justice warrior premier is bent on creating, just in time for next spring’s provincial election, makes sense when we’re already struggling to compete for investment with neighbours who enjoy a raft of advantages.

In Ohio, which is happily scooping up a chunk of our greenhouse industry, the minimum wage is US$8.15. In Michigan, it’s US$8.90. Across a wide swath of the southern U.S., from South Carolina to Texas, the minimum wage is US$7.25 an hour. Even with the exchange rate, that’s one heck of a gap.

The American visitors who freak now at our supermarket prices will get quite the shock when they see what’s about to whack our restaurant industry.

The Wynne government and its predecessor have saddled Ontario with appalling energy costs, stifling regulations and nanny state rules and now they’ve found one more way to make this debt-ridden province uncompetitive.

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